St. Olaf football player is identified as victim fatally shot in South St. Paul home

A St. Olaf College football player was fatally shot and another man was wounded in a South St. Paul home early Friday, officials said.

The shooting occurred about 3:45 a.m. inside the residence in the 300 block of 2nd Avenue S., police said. A suspect was arrested later that morning, according to police.

St. Olaf informed its campus community in Northfield that the student-athlete who died was junior Matthew Lee.

College Ministry led a gathering “for individual reflection, candle lighting, and prayer” at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Boe Chapel.

Lee, 20, an economics major from South St. Paul, was on the roster this season. He played in each of the past two years at linebacker.

The team doesn’t have a game this week. Its next game is scheduled for Sept. 20 at home vs. Concordia College of Moorhead.

Head Coach James Kilian said he’s known Lee since recruiting him when he was a junior at South St. Paul High School.

Kilian said his players “are obviously crushed. ... This is such a blow to our team. I got texts, ‘Tell me it isn’t so, Coach.’ ”

Police said their officers arrived and found the two men wounded from gunfire. One was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other, with critical wounds, was taken by emergency medical responders to a nearby hospital, police said.

The suspect ran from the scene, and an extensive search by law enforcement led to an arrest without resistance about 5:45 a.m. about a quarter-mile to the south in the 500 block of 1st Avenue S., police said.